Transmissive displays provide enhanced performance in many areas compared to transflective displays or purely reflective displays. A transmissive display is illuminated from the back by an illumination source/light source (e.g., a backlight), and is viewed from the opposite side (i.e., the “front”). This type of display may be used in applications requiring high luminance levels (e.g., computer displays, televisions, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, etc.). Unfortunately, the illumination source used to illuminate a transmissive display usually consumes much more power than the display.
One solution to this problem is to make the display reflective or transflective. A reflective display (e.g., often found in digital watches or calculators) is illuminated by external light reflected by a diffusing reflector located behind the display. Although the absence of an illumination source reduces power consumption in a reflective display, the contrast on such displays is typically poorer than on transmissive displays. A transflective display works as either a transmissive display or a reflective display, depending on the ambient light. For example, a transflective display operates in a reflective mode when external light levels are high, and in a transmissive mode in darker environments via a backlight. Unfortunately, transflective displays are not as power efficient as transmissive displays in the transmissive mode, and are not as power efficient as reflective displays in the reflective mode. Therefore, what is needed is a method to make transflective displays more power efficient.